Today we were in Papeete, Tahiti. This is a very beautiful island with lush foliage, flowers, and trees. We also saw a beautiful waterfall that came from the top of a mountain. Another part of our tour took us to the home of James Norman Hall who was one of the authors of Mutiny on the Bounty. His daughter is still living and was at the home to give us a tour. Her brother also won 3 Oscars for the movies Mutiny on the Bounty, Sundance Kid, and the Road to Perdition. We were also treated to a Polynesian dance troupe after the tour.
We will be at sea tomorrow on our way to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. We will be there on Sunday but still hope to see the Super Bowl; however, our satellite reception for the TV channels has not been that good. I am hoping the Giants win, while Tin is hoping the Patriots win.
We also have entertainment each evening on the ship. Some better than others, but one of the most interesting acts we have seen is a juggler who is able to solve a Rubik’s cube while juggling it with 2 other objects in less than 5 minutes. The food has also been very good. Tin and I are both trying to exercise but it is still difficult not to gain weight with all the good food.
Hope all of you are fine. We have heard that there has been quite a bit of cold and/or snowy weather. We miss all of you.
February 3, 2008
Today was quite a busy one. We landed at Rarotonga, Cook Islands this morning and took a guided tour around the island. It is quite beautiful with lush foliage. They have many tropical fruits including coconuts and papaya. Part of our tour included picking our own papayas. We then had a demonstration on how they use coconuts for may things besides eating. After this, they served the fresh papaya, coconut milk, and coconut meat. They were all very delicious. A staple on this island is the taro root, which we saw growing. Tin and I both like this food as it is also a staple of the Chinese diet. It is used much like a potato. I bought some jewelry that is made of seashells and has accents of black pearls.
As soon as we returned from the tour, we went to the large lounge onboard the ship to watch the Super Bowl. It was nice to finally get to see some sports after a week of little to no satellite television reception. They decorated the hall with balloons and streamers and made it into a tailgate party with hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and salsa, ete. Pretty good for an English ship! The game was not too exciting, as most of you probably already know, until the 4th quarter. Although we are Packers’ fans, we did root for the Giants, because we like the Manning brothers. (I convinced Tin that rooting for the underdog was more fun.)
We are leaving the Cook Islands today and will be at sea until February 9th when we will arrive in Auckland, New Zealand. Looking for to this as we have heard that it is a beautiful country.
February 8, 2008
Well we have hit our first snag. After leaving Rarotonga, the sea became quite rough due to hurricane Jean that was between Rarotonga and Auckland, New Zealand. Because of this, the ship had to take a longer route to avoid the hurricane. Even with this the swells were as big as 10-12 feet, things were sliding or flying in some cases around the cabin and ship in general. Needless to say Sue was not feeling so good and even Tin who usually is alright had to give in and take some medicine. This detour caused us to lose time of course and as such we will not reach Auckland until the evening of February 9th and all tours had to be cancelled. We are disappointed as we were especially looking forward to seeing New Zealand. In the meantime we also crossed the international date line, so we lost a day. We are now 18 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone. As I write this, it is 3 pm here on the 8th and 9 pm in the Eastern time zone on the 7th. Wish us well as we still have 1 day to go to reach New Zealand.
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